Ads' 30 seconds of fame under threat

By Rachel Browne

THE traditional 30-second television advertisement is under threat as viewers use new technology to skip ads and companies increasingly turn to product placement to spruik their brands.

Australia is the world's third-largest paid product-placement market after the US and Brazil and advertisers are expected to spend almost $280 million on product placement in Australian television programming this year, custom media research firm PQ Media says.

The trend for product placement on TV shows is partly due to the introduction of personal video recorders such as TiVo and Foxtel iQ, which make it easier for viewers to avoid commercial breaks.

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"It's getting harder and harder to connect with people," said Todd Sampson, a panellist on The Gruen Transfer and chief executive of ad agency Leo Burnett.

"Weaving a product into the entertainment - as opposed to breaking up the entertainment, which is what ads tend to do - is a smart strategy."

Companies are increasingly aware that a 30-second ad break is no longer the effective tool it once was, particularly with the young who are technologically savvy enough to dodge ads.

"The consumer increasingly has the power to change the way they consume content, and that has really driven the whole trend towards product placement.

"Those placements are not designed to jump out at you as an ad would but it's still very, very powerful. It's not explicit advertising but we do know that while you're watching a program all of the content that you see, as a whole, goes in," he said.

Mr Sampson said obvious product placement could be a turn-off.

"I believe people will tolerate you talking about yourself in a 30-second commercial, or even a 60-second commercial, but when it gets to 30 minutes, you're pushing the limit. When you're conscious it is a product placement it becomes distracting."

Almost 25 companies supply products to ABC1's teen series Blue Water High. Surf brands such as Billabong, Rip Curl, Quiksilver, O'Neill and Roxy are featured along with Annesley surfboards and computer equipment. The program is produced by Southern Star, which is owned by Fairfax Media, publisher of The Sun-Herald.

While the television series Sex And The City generated business for designer brands such as Jimmy Choo and Manolo Blahnik, some think the film took product placement too far.

"That movie was product placement," Mr Sampson said. "I think they stopped it at 60 to 70 brands represented in that movie. If you have too much product placement, it just becomes an ad and people are not that interested in watching a two-hour ad."

That has not stopped advertisers in the US from spending an estimated $4 billion on product placement last year, with Coca-Cola leading the way. In the first six months of last year Coca-Cola was mentioned on network television 3054 times in product placements, Nielsen data shows.

Shows such as Desperate Housewives reap millions of dollars from product-placement deals. Buick paid $1 million for its vehicle to be prominently featured as part of a story in which Eva Longoria Parker's character promoted the car in a shopping centre.

In Weeds Mary-Louise Parker's character trades her Range Rover for a Prius to be "environmentally responsible" despite her son deriding the car as being "crappy and small".

Advertising Federation of Australia executive director Mark Champion said that although product placement was on the rise, many clients were still wary. "It is part of the thinking these days … but clients still have to weigh up whether the amount they pay to have their product in a certain program or film offers a good return."